I See You

8

Lena sat quietly at the dining table with her mother and her father chatting about their day at work; Lena could hear them talking but she wasn't listening to a word that was coming out of their mouths, her mind only had space for the photos that had arrived and the text she had gotten.

"How was your day?" asked Peter as he looked at his daughter, she was pushing her rice back and forth over the plate but she had barely taken a bite.

"Lena" smiled Margaret.

Lena looked up at her mother and then turned to look at her dad, a puzzled look over her face.

"How was your day?" asked Peter once more, Lena looked at him and answered almost in a whisper.

"Jonathan got fired today"

"Yes, your mother told me" Peter sighed "Who would have known he was that kind of person"

"Who sent that envelope?" asked Margaret.

Lena turned to her mother slowly, her jaw had gotten stiff and she was clutching her fork so hard her clutching hand started to turn white. The young woman sat there looking at her mother for a few seconds before she answered.

"No one"

Margaret chuckled and with a sigh she leaned over the table and looked directly at her daughter.

"Sweetheart, I felt the envelope over your bed, but it didn't get here alone" she looked at Peter "Are you feeling ok?"

Lena felt an incredibly hot sensation start to grow inside her body, she put the fork down and glanced from her father and then back at her mother, she was pretty sure she was about to start sweating and the chances of her to vomit once more had increased highly.

"Yes?" whispered Lena, more like a question than as a statement.

Peter and Margaret looked at each other and then turned back to look at their only daughter, Peter was the first one to speak.

"You look very pale, Lena"

"I'm ok" Lena pushed the chair back and looked at her father "Can I be excused? I'm just tired from all the things that happened with Jonathan"

"Yes, of course" said Peter "Go get some rest darling"

Lena faked a smile to her father and stood up, she turned from the table and hurried out of the room, she crossed the living room and once she knew she was out of sight the young woman started to run up the stairs and towards her own room.

Lena close the door of her room and leaned against it and dropped herself to the floor slowly, she pulled her legs up to her chest and turned her eyes towards the cellphone that still lay over the floor. Lena slowly looked up at her bed, she could make out the brown envelope that had contained the horrible pictures of herself.

“Someone was following me” whispered Lena “Why?”

The young woman didn’t dare move, she was feeling beyond the word terrified, she didn’t know what was going on, why had someone taken those pictures of her? But above all, what did those messages mean?

“Stop what?” whispered Lena “Stop what?” 

___________//____________

Lena was cleaning one of the inside tables as the Frozen Paradise as Meghan served three ice cream cones for a group of kids; it had been a surprisingly busy morning at the Frozen Paradise and they still had half of their shift left; Meghan watched Lena after her costumers left, her friend looked incredibly tense and the huge brown bags under Lena’s eyes told Meghan that the girl had had very little sleep the night before.